Sidewinder (Seth Voelker) 4* - Rebalance #2 Dev Notes

S0kun

Originally intended for the upcoming R323 release, Sidewinder's 2nd rebalance made its way into the current live build of the game due to a branching error that saw the rebalance code merged into the wrong build. I guess that's appropriate to the character's name, but very unfortunate since the rebalance has been highly discussed amongst the community and our aim was to get this out to our players before they went into effect.

After the original baby nerf to his match percentage buffs, we took a deeper dive into what was causing the unintended massive power scaling and made the following changes to his Yellow Leader of the Serpent Society ability to bring him back to where he should have originally been in the meta.

• Reduce bonus match damage buff to max 400% instead of 1525%

  • Sidewinder's buff was never intended to be able to down an enemy from the onset of battle and was enabling outsized damage numbers with characters like Chasm and M'baku, which was massively scaling match damage beyond its intended design. To compensate for the reduction in percent bonus match damage, we added an approximately similar amount of flat match damage (at 4*).

• Add additional damage when Passive is activated

  • To balance out the buff percentages going down, we added flat damage numbers when the Passive was triggered to help increase damage from the ability itself. This means that characters without any intrinsic damage buffs will see a similar benefit as before, but bringing down the multiplicative aspect of those characters that have their own base damage multipliers.
  • This also serves to increase the effectiveness of the Passive when triggered by characters of lower levels and rarities than Sidewinder.

• Create a drain on the Team-Up AP upon match

  • His build up to max damage potential was way too fast and persistent so we needed to slow him down with a Team-Up AP drain that could still be used to chase the damage bonus without making it impossible to achieve max numbers.

• Increase the damage of the Serpent Society Repeater tile

  • Once satisfied with the changes above, leftover damage in the balance was added directly into the damage of the Active’s Serpent Society Repeater tiles, boosting his other avenue of damage through Leader of the Serpent Society and his Blue Dimensional Teleport abilities.

Ability: Leader of Serpent Society

Color: Yellow
AP Cost: 5

BEFORE

The strength of the Serpent Society grows as Sidewinder’s elaborate schemes slowly manifest. Create a 5-turn Serpent Society Repeater tile that deals 472 damage, then creates a copy of itself (max: 2).

(PASSIVE) Whenever a teammate makes a match, increase the damage dealt from that match by 53% for every Team-Up AP you have (max of 425%) Whenever you make a Team-Up match, gain 1 extra Team-Up AP if one of your teammates is a Villain.

270: Create a 5-turn tile that deals 907 damage. Increase damage by 53% (max of 425%)
370: Create a 5-turn tile that deals 1905 damage. Increase damage by 53% (max of 425%)

• Level 2: Create a 4-turn tile that deals 657 damage. Increase damage by 75% (max of 600%)

  • 270: Create a 4-turn tile that deals 1263 damage. Increase damage by 75% (max of 600%)
  • 370: Create a 4-turn tile that deals 2652 damage. Increase damage by 75% (max of 600%)

• Level 3: Create a 3-turn tile that deals 842 damage. Increase damage by 97% (max of 775%)

  • 270: Create a 3-turn tile that deals 1618 damage. Increase damage by 97% (max of 775%)
  • 370: Create a 3-turn tile that deals 3399 damage. Increase damage by 97% (max of 775%)

• Level 4: Create a 2-turn that deals 389 damage (max: 3). Increase damage by 119% (max of 950%). Gain 2 extra AP.

  • 270: Create a 2-turn that deals 747 damage (max: 3). Increase damage by 119% (max of 950%). Gain 2 extra AP.
  • 370: Create a 2-turn that deals 1570 damage (max: 3). Increase damage by 119% (max of 950%). Gain 2 extra AP.

• Level 5: Create a 1-turn that deals 102 damage (max: 6). Increase damage by 191% (max of 1525%).

  • 270: Create a 1-turn that deals 196 damage (max: 6). Increase damage by 191% (max of 1525%).
  • 370: Create a 1-turn that deals 411 damage (max: 6). Increase damage by 191% (max of 1525%).

AFTER

The strength of the Serpent Society grows as Sidewinder’s elaborate schemes slowly manifest. Create a 5-turn Serpent Society Repeater tile that deals 639 damage, then creates a copy of itself (max: 2).

(PASSIVE) Whenever a teammate makes a match, for every Team-Up AP you have: deal 37 damage and 15% bonus match damage (max of 120%), then drain up to 2 Team-Up AP. Whenever you make a Team-Up match, gain 1 extra Team-Up AP if a teammate is a Villain.

270: Create a 5-turn tile that deals 1228 damage. Matches deal 71 and 15% bonus damage (max of 170%).
370: Create a 5-turn tile that deals 2578 damage. Matches deal 149 and 15% bonus damage (max of 170%).

• Level 2: Create a 4-turn tile that deals 889 damage. Matches deal 51 and 21% bonus damage (max of 170%).

  • 270: Create a 4-turn tile that deals 1708 damage. Matches deal 98 and 21% bonus damage (max of 170%).
  • 370: Create a 4-turn tile that deals 3586 damage. Matches deal 205 and 21% bonus damage (max of 170%).

• Level 3: Create a 3-turn tile that deals 1148 damage. Matches deal 66 and 27% bonus damage (max of 220%).

  • 270: Create a 3-turn tile that deals 2207 damage. Matches deal 126 and 27% bonus damage (max of 220%).
  • 370: Create a 3-turn tile that deals 4633 damage. Matches deal 264 and 27% bonus damage (max of 220%).

• Level 4: Create a 2-turn tile that deals 491 damage (max: 3). Matches deal 79 and 31% bonus damage (max of 250%). Gain 2 extra AP.

  • 270: Create a 2-turn tile that deals 943 damage (max: 3). Matches deal 151 and 31% bonus damage (max of 250%). Gain 2 extra AP.
  • 370: Create a 2-turn tile that deals 1980 damage (max: 3). Matches deal 317 and 31% bonus damage (max of 250%). Gain 2 extra AP.

• Level 5: Create a 1-turn tile that deals 139 damage (max: 6). Matches deal 128 and 50% bonus damage (max of 400%).

  • 270: Create a 1-turn tile that deals 266 damage (max: 6). Matches deal 245 and 50% bonus damage (max of 400%).
  • 370: Create a 1-turn tile that deals 559 damage (max: 6). Matches deal 514 and 50% bonus damage (max of 400%).

Seph1roth5

Bit heavy-handed but I'd rather he be TOO nerfed than not nerfed enough lol. I think it would've been so much easier and simpler if he just had a lower match damage cap, spread out over more AP. Like...800% over 30ap? Something not so frontloaded anyway.

The TU drain is a bit much, but again, rather it be overboard a bit lol. When a crazy unbalanced character comes out it's bad for the game in general. And most games, right before they die, put out crazy OP stuff to try and get as much $$ as they can first.

ThisisClemFandango

I wonder if the power budget can now be distributed to hobgoblin, gorgon and the duck.
Because you are on the strangest character streak ever

WhiteBomber

Thanks for addressing this one quicker than most.

Personal thoughts are that the TU drain might hurt him a bit more than intended, but definitely better than it was.

Daredevil217

Mirroring others, thank you for the quick rebalance to a character clearly out of line with every other character in the game.

I also want to thank you for the 4* Daredevil rebalance! Given he’s my favorite character (duh) it warmed my heart. Hopefully I can one day ascend him to 5* and use him as intended! Since we’re tossing around rebalances, don’t forget 5* Murdock! Still time before Born Again ends!

Floater

Where was it said there was going to be a second rebalance? It took a month to ascend him. Ascending him looked like nerf already. What happens to those of us that ascended him? Paying for swaps and using covers is a waste of resources.

Codex

I dislike how all of this handled; from the creation of the character to "testing" to release to nerf 1 and 2.

BriMan2222

@Floater said:
Where was it said there was going to be a second rebalance? It took a month to ascend him. Ascending him looked like nerf already. What happens to those of us that ascended him? Paying for swaps and using covers is a waste of resources.

After his first nerf Sokun announced that another nerf was likely both here on the forums and on discord.

LavaManLee

“More comprehensive” didn’t mean they had to nuke nerf the poor guy.

DAZ0273

@LavaManLee said:
“More comprehensive” didn’t mean they had to nuke nerf the poor guy.

He kept teleporting away from his nerf so they had to go in for the kill.

Floater

That post was 2 weeks prior to being able to ascend Sidewinder.

Like I said. Ascending him looked like a nerf already. His numbers got cut in half. Why make him ascendable if those weren't the final numbers? Why did it take a month to ascend this f it wasn't finalized?

BriMan2222

@Floater said:
That post was 2 weeks prior to being able to ascend Sidewinder.

Like I said. Ascending him looked like a nerf already. His numbers got cut in half. Why make him ascendable if those weren't the final numbers? Why did it take a month to ascend this f it wasn't finalized?

Thats not what they said though. They said another nerf, not nerfed on ascension. If that was the case people would just never ascend him, like iron may. You didn't even need him champed, just 5 covers in yellow and you were good to go.

Only nerfing his ascend version would do nothing to stop him.

DAZ0273

Yeah, sorry but I don't get the ascension argument. You didn't even need to champ him let alone ascend him. Any character that can influence play to this extent in a non champed state of build is clearly not right and an absolute outlier that required fixing. This was as big a target on the chest of any character in MPQ in recent times. If you rolled the dice, you took a big gamble.

dianetics

Spillover of complainers here again.
As Joaquin Phoenix said as Joker “You get what you ** deserve”

ThisisClemFandango

He also sang alot in a non sensical movie that disappointed millions.
I don't know if that's applicable in this situation but he did.

Borstock

I'm perplexed how this version of the character and the old version of the character have the same "budget". But the old one was broken.

revskip

Yay. Now do Mighty Thor and Polaris next.

Scorpion201

How about a no on Polaris and yes on mighty thor, she the worst..

Bustapup

Brilliant! He is absolutely right to be nerfed he was crazy out of control

DAZ0273

@Scorpion201 said:
How about a no on Polaris and yes on mighty thor, she the worst..

Funny I was thinking the other way round...

Scorpion201

@DAZ0273 said:

@Scorpion201 said:
How about a no on Polaris and yes on mighty thor, she the worst..

Funny I was thinking the other way round.

Either way it's going to be glorious when nerf hammer comes down on mighty thor or what's left of her.